Santa Muerte Music & Arts Festival on October 28th and 29th, 2011 will be a two-day event celebrating the folklore of the Southwest and showcasing some of the most important underground musicians and cutting-edge international visionary artists. This is a grassroots event created and inspired by artists and musicians. The music event is in participation with Nightmare On Congress Street, which features a “block party” of music from four venues: The Historic Rialto Theatre, The Historic Hotel Congress, Sacred Machine Museum and Playground Roof Deck, as an all-inclusive ticketed event for Tucson’s biggest Halloween party.

• ART: Twenty-four world-renowned artists from Scotland, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Netherlands,New Zealand, and across the U.S. converge on Tucson at Sacred Machine. Participating artists’ work has appeared in and been commissioned by The New York Times, Juxtapoz Magazine, Hi-Fructose Magazine, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Low Rider Magazine, the Academy Award winning movie ‘Traffic’ by Steven Soderbergh, on multiplatinum album covers, illustrated children”s books, published monographs, and advertising for clients such as Sony and Toyota. “These artists are so multi-talented that some even play in rock bands and create videos. With their work they have imbued apocalyptic prophecies, shaken the norms of conventional iconography and written books, museums and collectors such as Madonna acquire their work, they exhibit their art across the globe, some self-taught, some professors, some outsiders, but one thing is certain, the group as a whole has influenced, and is seriously rocking the art world.” Paula Catherine Valencia, Curator of Sacred Machine

• MUSIC: The event also joins forces with a unique group of underground and highly innovative musicians, whose mutual admiration has spawned what they call “an epic event of music and drama” and who seek to push the envelope of acceptable norms, melding genres, shattering molds, and making an artistic statement. The show promises to offer an experience that stimulates the senses, both aurally and visually.

This Saturday, Oct. 22nd, Launch The Loop will celebrate the connection of the pedestrian and bike paths through the Santa Cruz and Rillito river parks. The 23-mile path from West Silverlake Road to North Craycroft Road is the longest completed, continuous segment of “The Loop”, which is 55 miles of car-free paths being developed around Tucson, with links to Marana and Oro Valley. Pima County residents and visitors can enjoy the path on foot, bikes, skates, and horses.

The Launch the Loop celebration will be a day of family-friendly activities. There will be a walk, run, or ride to the dedication site on Sunset Rd, as well as a 22 mile loop to the University of Arizona campus and back. There is also a limited amount of free t-shirts, water bottles, and bike helmets for kids.

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will return to the Fox Theatre for a TSO POPS! TRIBUTE TO ELVIS PRESLEY during the up-coming 2nd Saturdays Downtown event on October 8. The performance begins at 7pm and will feature Robert Shaw, a favorite of Tucson. Tickets are $20, children under 12 are free. The Fox Theatre is at 17 West Congress Street. The concert will open the famous photography exhibit “Who shot Rock and Roll” which begins October 22 and is brought to Downtown Tucson from the Brooklyn Museum by the Tucson Museum of Art.

Opening with an Elvis Overture and featuring two short films, Celebrating Elvis with Robert Shaw includes performances of such hits as “That’s All Right, Mama,” “Hound Dog,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Love Me Tender,” “It’s Now or Never,” “Kentucky Rain,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Burning Love.”

Affectionately called by locals, “Tucson Eat Yourself” for the abundance of delicious, inexpensive homemade ethnic foods, Tucson Meet Yourself will hold another free Folklife Festival this weekend, October 14-16. There are demonstrations by folk artists, delicious food, Iron Chef competitions, a Lowrider car show, interactive dance workshops, and music from all over the world. This year features special activities focused on celebrating traditions of health and wellness; and a variety of expanded educational programs, including active participation by TUSD students, teachers, and parents.

Tucson Meet Yourself also doubles as a fundraising platform for 65 participating non-profit clubs, cultural organizations, and small ethnic entrepreneurs and small business owners. Standing apart from other multicultural celebrations in the Old Pueblo by its “folklife” mission, the Tucson Meet Yourself festival is always preceded by scholarly research and extensive relationship-building with the variety of living traditional artists, folk groups, and ethnic communities that reside here.

“The passion of playing music is the essence of my life,” says professional percussionist Richard Noel.

The multi-instrumentalist has a long laundry list of accomplishments, but his smile is biggest when talking about spreading happiness through music.

“It is so joyful and important to me when I see people responding when I play my music, it definitely propels me,” Noel explains. “I play music from my soul and I think it is transmitted to other people’s lives.”

The aeronautical/structural engineer is known around town as the force behind Sticks and Fingers, a percussion ensemble that plays downtown regularly as part of 2nd Saturdays. The Aug. 13 event saw throngs of people surrounding the group, who was hosting a high-energy limbo competition in rhythm to island beats. The crowd loved it.

Noel, originally from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, has percussion seared into his body and spirit. As a child growing up in the Caribbean, he’d wake up to the sounds of drums when the elders were engaging in religious rituals. “I grew up in a real festive culture, everything was a celebration,” says the 46-year-old. “Some rituals involved playing drums for 24 hours. It’s not like that anymore, but that’s the way it was when I was growing up.” He laughs, adding that the “iPod generation took that custom out.”

He laughs a lot, with an ardor that is infectious and uplifting. His broad pearly-white smile punctuates a handsome face and contrasts beautifully with his deep-ebony skin. Noel is in fabulous shape, probably due in part to his drumming contributions in the UZO movement classes at The Movement Shala, 435 E. 9th St.

When he’s not working at Evergreen Air Center, hosting foster children and raising three daughters with his wife, you can find him running his non-profit Arts for Life Community (mission: to unite and empower the underserved and the greater arts community through live percussion workshops) and serving on the Tucson Meet Yourself board.

This year, Noel released “Joy of the Caribbean,” an 11-track CD recorded in his bedroom studio. The mostly one-man project (Noel played 90% of the instruments) is a fantastic dance album that fuses together Caribbean Soca, Bass, American Standards and Latin beats. It is available at 17th Street Market, 830 E. 17th St., iTunes, Amazon and at his live performances.

Through his music, Noel says one of his goals is to take “the steel drum, and percussion in general, to where it’s never been before – as a lead instrument. The steel drum is a melodic instrument; it can play melodies and songs, it has notes.”

He also aims to make the world a better place. “It’s about spreading the joy wherever we go. I think that’s what is missing in community, politics divide us. That universal language of love through music is something that can bring us back through community events.” Richard Noel, featuring Sticks and Fingers, performs at Tucson Meet Yourself on Saturday, Oct. 15, 8:30pm, at the TCC plaza stage. A sneak preview of that show happens during 2nd Saturdays on Oct. 8. Visit RDNoel.com and TucsonMeetYourself.org for details.

View the work of over 30 photographers, covering rock from Punk to Pop, local to national. Photos of the best rock acts and musicians are being revealed, captured by the best lenses in town.

copyright Michael Hyatt

The reception on Saturday is from 6pm-11pm, and lasts four weekends only through October 29.

The Tucson Shot Rock and Roll exhibit is part of the city-wide Tucson Rocks program, coinciding with Tucson Museum of Art’s “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present,” opening October 22.

Experience original plays on Second Saturdays in Downtown Tucson at The Temple Lounge!

Arizona Theatre Company announces Café Bohemia, a season of play readings, jams and ideas; featuring diverse new works from bold and inventive playwrights. Café Bohemia invites audiences to The Temple Lounge at the Temple of Music and Art in downtown Tucson, a comfortable and intimate space to participate in the new play process, to hear works read aloud by the best local and national actors.

The playwrights of these exciting new works will be present at the readings as they continue to develop their scripts. Tucson audiences are invited to enter the dramatic process at its inception, being among the first people in the world to hear these stories come to life, investing in the future of the American theatre by starting relationships with new playwrights and new audiences. Café Bohemia is sponsored by Providence Service Corporation. The fee is $5 for general admission with limited seating available.

On November 4 the Fox Tucson Theatre will host a gala event called Chasing Rainbows that will re-celebrate the Fox’s opening night in 1930. There will be a live concert by Grammy Award-winning legend, Judy Collins; 1930s inspired cocktails and buffet; and a raffle for a 1930 Model A sedan. The event will start at 6:00 p.m.

The September 2nd Saturdays is coming up this weekend, where Tucsonans can find unique and original items for sale. Krisztina Racz has been a vendor selling her hand-made jewelry for over a year. She has many regular visitors and loves hanging out in the 2nd Saturdays crowd.

Krisztina started making jewelry at age seven when her aunt taught her bead work, influenced by Native American design. Krisztina was a professional dancer for ten years, and then designed jewelry in New York before opening her own business in 2005. She mostly likes to use wire and metal, bead accents and feathers to build her jewelry. Krisztina’s style is inspired by her Hungarian gypsy background and African design elements. She loves making jewelry because it is creative, the possibilities are infinite, and there is always something new to learn and do. She feels good wearing it, and enjoys sharing that feeling with her customers.